Is Product Management Obsolete? (SVPMA, Palo Alto)

The emergence of Agile/Scrum, Lean Startup, LeanUX, business model canvasses and growth hacking have dramatically expanded our range of tools, methodologies and vocabularies. Paired with cloud-based development infrastructure, startups can move from concept to validation to product faster than ever.

New methodologies don’t specifically call out product managers, and their process focus doesn’t match traditional job descriptions. At first glance, it seems like “we’re doing Agile or Lean Startup, so don’t need product managers.” So is this role obsolete?